Greinke extended his personal scoreless streak to 35 2/3 innings with eight scoreless innings Thursday in the Dodgers’ 6-0 victory over Philadelphia, giving up only one hit and retiring the last 21 consecutive Phillies.

The only hit he surrendered was a single Ryan Howard softly dropped into left field. The hit came against a defensive shift that had no true third baseman, though it likely would have gone past the reach of Alberto Callaspo at third.

Greinke came in with the lowest earned-run average in the majors, and then lowered it to 1.39. He becomes the first pitcher since 1968 to enter the All-Star break with a sub-1.40 ERA and more than 100 innings pitched.

Listen, this is pretty simple. You don't light fireworks with an NFL player, you don't yell “Avengers, assemble!” without Captain America, and you absolutely do not have an All-Star game without the best pitcher on planet Earth.

Greinke (8-2) is likely making himself a lot of money in the process. He has three years and $71 million remaining on his existing six-year deal, but can opt out after this season. He turns 32 in October.

In Greinke’s eight innings Thursday, he did not walk a batter and struck out eight. Howard was the Phillies' only baserunner.

Joel Peralta gave up a two-out hit but pitched a scoreless ninth to complete the shutout, the Dodgers’ 13th of the season, tying them with the Giants for the most in the majors.

The offense was led by Yasiel Puig, who doubled in two runs in the fourth and added a two-run homer in the eighth. Puig came into the game batting .135 (five for 37) with runners in scoring position. It was his fourth home run of the season, and he had driven in only 10 runs entering Thursday.